An intersection will be dedicated Thursday to the founders of a Los Angeles landmark restaurant.
Alejandro and Rosa Borquez Square will be located at the intersection of Western Avenue and 11th Street in honor of the founders of El Cholo. El Cholo The Original is located on Western Avenue just south of 11th Street.
The ceremony is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Ron Salisbury, the 90-year-old grandson of the founders, Brendon Salisbury, the chief financial officer of El Cholo Restaurants and a great-grandson of the founders, City Councilwoman Heather Hutt, and singer Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas are set to speak.
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Details about a newly launched $1 million campaign by El Cholo for fighting children's cancer will be announced at the ceremony.
The Borquez family opened the Sonora Café, named for their home state, Sonora, Mexico, in 1923 on Broadway and Santa Barbara Avenue, which is now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, in South Los Angeles. The original menu included very early California plates, including sweet green corn tamales.
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In 1925, a customer at the restaurant drew on a paper menu a figure of a Mexican field hand, an "El Cholo." Alejandro Borquez enjoyed the sketch so much he and his wife were inspired to rename the restaurant El Cholo.
Aurelia Borquez, the daughter of Alejandro and Rosa Borquez, met her future husband, George Salisbury, at El Cholo in 1926. The couple opened their own El Cholo restaurant in 1927, choosing a site on the east side of Western Avenue, with George Salisbury's mother, Lydia, mortgaging her home for $600 so he could open the restaurant.
El Cholo moved into a two-bedroom bungalow across the street in 1931 and remains at that site.
